Artists Inspired by London: Trevor Burgess

The street markets, people and architecture that make this city the perfect muse

The artist with his painting of a family shopping

Trevor Burgess paints the people of London, capturing the thrum and diversity of everyday London life, giving them a texture that encompasses that dynamism. We caught up with him to discuss his practice, and how it’s evolved.

How did London become your painting muse, and particularly the people of London?

I moved to Hackney in 1999. The streets around where I lived were thronging with a dense mix of people from literally all over the world, and I found it a thrilling place to be. Every time I stepped out the door, there was life on the street I wanted to paint. And I thought to myself, there’s a long tradition of painting London, but who's painting this contemporary multicultural London?

I wanted to paint the everyday lives of people in the city at the outset of the 21st century as I was experiencing it. I was aware of the Black British Arts movement in the eighties, raising issues around British identity, and it was the height of the Young British Artists’ provocative and ironic take on popular culture. Still, I wasn’t aware of anybody painting the daily urban life I was seeing around me.

There was a definite feeling from the art world that it was anything but cool to paint the local neighbourhood just outside the gallery door with any affection and love. I took particular exception to some of the depictions of Hackney that glamourised violence and deprivation, as if it was some titillating and frightening urban jungle – the area around my first home in Clapton was often referred to as the “Murder Mile”.

Of course, I’m not naïve: violence and stuff was going on. The estate where I lived was visibly run down in the aftermath of 17 years of Tory disinvestment and neglect. But people were making a life, having fun, going about their daily business, bringing up kids. That’s what I am trying to convey in the paintings.

Below the paywall:

• How he uses photography to capture the dynamism of London

• Anecdotes of the people he’s met along the way

• What’s so special about London